June 28, 20213 yr 2 hours ago, BigDipper 80 said: This whole project was stupid, but you also have to question why the Smart City people even selected Columbus' proposal in the first place. Yelling "Self-driving cars!" and "tech!" causes smart people to make stupid decisions. The author did try to highlight went well: Quote What works, according to Columbus: Once the pandemic hit, the project transformed the autonomous shuttle into a food bank delivery operation, which self-drove 500 boxes of food a month between summer 2020 and spring 2021 to a local food pantry, bringing it closer to people in need. (A safety operator was always on board to monitor the tech.) Twenty-seven Columbus residents with cognitive disabilities tested an app to help them navigate public transit, with which 70 percent reported “satisfaction” afterwards. Seventy pregnant women tested an app-based Uber-like service to get to medical appointments. Compared with a control group that didn’t use the on-demand service, they visited doctors, pharmacies, and grocery stores more often. The report says the rides alone were unlikely to guarantee safer births and healthier babies, but suggested they could be a “valuable contribution.” Five of the eight projects launched by the challenge will continue, including a citywide “operating system” to share data between government and private entities, the smart kiosks, and the parking and trip-planning apps. Smart Columbus will also focus on providing broadband access to all of its residents who lack it—a gap that officials say became even more problematic during the pandemic. Very Stable Genius
June 28, 20213 yr I think I can count myself as at least a partial Smart Columbus success story, for a part of the program I haven't seen mentioned too often. Back in Sept 2019, I went to a test drive event held by Smart Columbus for the purpose of encouraging EV/PHEV adoption. They had some nice discussion about the environmental and economic benefits of going electric, what it was like to live with an electric car, etc. Probably a dozen cars to drive, I ended up driving a Tesla Model S and Toyota Prius Prime (PHEV). I consider myself a car enthusiast, though I also like my cars to have some balance of practicality and efficiency along with power and handling. I do appreciate good engineering, and had been curious about the state of EVs and PHEVs - but since our cars were pretty new I wasn't about to go out looking anytime soon. The Tesla was impressive, though the price/range doesn't quite work for our needs (but getting close). The real surprise was how much I liked the Prius, especially compared to friends' Prii (if only it had a bit more cargo space). Despite my 25-year love of cars with three pedals, I left the event absolutely sure our next car would be a hybrid at minimum, and anything else would feel like a relic. A few weeks ago, encouraged by ridiculous trade-in values and realizing it was getting annoying to use it for toddler duty, I traded in my Ford Focus ST on a new (hybrid-only) Toyota Venza. Though not PHEV, we wanted a crossover, and several of our other top contenders lost out because of the lack of hybrid option (or the hybrid version being super expensive, or impossible to get like the RAV4 Prime). Had it not been for the Smart Columbus event, it's hard to imagine getting a hybrid would have been such a high priority for us. Edit: Here is a link about the EV component of the program and what they accomplished - https://smartcitiesconnect.org/columbus-exceeds-smart-city-challenge-grants-electric-vehicle-adoption-goal/ Edited June 28, 20213 yr by mrCharlie added link
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